Page 8 - Ebook cây cảnh Art of Bonsai

8 The art of bonsai

The art of bonsai

For many, bonsai conjures up images of Asia and ideas of an obscure practice

that takes a lifetime to master. The reality is very different: bonsai is a truly
international art form that is open to everyone—a challenging combination of
technique, artistry, and horticultural ability that allows you to create living

works of art that will potentially last longer than your own time on earth.

It is generally accepted that bonsai originated in lies something deep and fascinating: an art form
China, and there is evidence of plants cultivated fused with horticulture, taking in aspects of design,
in containers in Babylonian times. However here culture, religion, craftsmanship, and discipline.
an important definition needs to be made: any plant
grown in a pot cannot be considered a bonsai. Before The definition of bonsai can be understood from the
delving into the history of bonsai, we should first etymology of the word itself. In Japanese “bonsai” is
look at what is a bonsai in the modern age. written as two words or characters: the first, “bon,”
means tray or container; the second, “sai,” means
What is bonsai? planting. So a plant in a pot could be termed a bonsai—
Bonsai professionals like myself ask themselves this but there is a great difference between a young
question every day. Throughout my apprenticeship, houseplant in a plastic pot and a six-hundred-year-old
working late into the night, the same question was pine tree, growing in a four-hundred-year-old antique
asked many times. It is very subjective and personal: Chinese container.
many see bonsai as an Asian art form, some see it as
an extreme form of gardening. Others think it is a The key difference between a pot plant and a bonsai
path to spiritual enlightenment, while for some it is is the artistic influence of man. Bonsai is created,
a simple hobby. It is all of these things and shaped, and maintained to represent an ideal of
more. To the question of what bonsai nature. Horticultural
is, the simplest, most profound ability alone
answer I could come up with will not
was “It is a small tree in a make a
pot.” Within that statement

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